Quasi perfect Equilibrium
by nerdforsale
Summary: When Xigbar goes missing during a mission, Xemnas sends Vexen to find him, and Vexen finds something he wasn't quite expecting...


I wrote this for a Halloween thing, thus the horror. I dunno what kind of warning I could give for this story; it's creepy? Scared me a little while I was writing it. Anyways. I'd love some reviews and whatnot, so feel free to give your opinion.

--

No one had heard from the second in command for a week, since his last report in where he stated that the place he was investigating "sucks so hard core, man." Xemnas had extended Xigbar's mission just because of the Freeshooter's dislike of the place.

Now, it was reaching the third day of the second week, already it was two days longer than the extension of the mission; someone wanted to go see what was taking him so long to return. Demyx offered to go, understandably as he was close to Xigbar, but Xemnas had refused; he said that the Melodious Nocturne wasn't fit enough for the task.

"Make someone else go," Vexen said when the Superior had come and told him his objective. "I have work to do, Superior. Send Xaldin, or Saix maybe. Kingdom Hearts knows that one eyed freak could use with some roughing up."

Xemnas shook his head. "No, Four. I want you to go. I trust that you would carry your task out fully; who knows what would happen if I sent Three, and I would agree with the "roughing up" were I certain of Two's condition. But Saix likes to get carried away sometimes, you know, and however annoying Xigbar may be…"

Vexen rolled his eyes behind the rose-colored goggles on his face and let out a heavy sigh. "I understand," the blonde said, turning the burner in front of him off and rising to his feet. He pulled off his rubber gloves in two swift motions, dropped them onto his chair, and turned to give Xemnas a small bow before turning and exiting the room.

--

Vexen was packed with a bag of supplies, his black organization jacket pristine, and he came up to the main floor from his lab. He was confident this would be a pointless journey; he would bet his moogles that Xigbar was just lazing around, drunk, or whatever else trouble he may have gotten into. Something that would prove to be a waste of the Academic's precious time. But, orders were orders, and he headed down the hall.

A little ways ahead, a tall, thin figure had skid around the corner and was running straight for the blonde.

"Vexen!" Demyx shouted as he ran closer, "A letter came from Xigbar!"

If Vexen had a heart, he would have felt relief; not by the knowledge that the Freeshooter was alive, but that the scientist wouldn't have to go out and look for the troublesome Nobody.

"C'mon, in the meeting room," the Nocturne said, hooking his arm around Vexen's and dragging him in the direction he was running. Vexen made a sound of protest, but ran with him in the end, and in no time at all they were slowing into the meeting room where several of the Organization members were already congregated.

Xemnas' face was emotionless, but his eyebrows were furrowed slightly; Vexen could tell things weren't right.

Xaldin was scowling over something in his hands, with Demyx now in the way.

"Is he doin' good, Xaldin?" Demyx asked, trying to get a look at the paper. Xaldin turned it away from him.

Now Vexen approached, stepping in front of Demyx and blocking him from view of the paper. "Three, what happened? Let me look at the paper. And Demyx," the mullet-headed musician had been leaning on the ice manipulator's shoulder, "Go away."

Demyx wanted to protest, but he knew when to hold his tongue with some of his superiors. Especially Vexen, who could freeze the musician's precious tongue off quicker than he could blink. So rather than persisting, he moved away to where Zexion and Lexaeus were standing off to the side. Now, alone with Xaldin, the Chilly Academic leaned a little closer to the Lancer and took the paper from him.

The letter was crumpled, the lower left corner stained like it had been dipped in mud, and the words on it were barely legible. Vexen squinted at the paper, raising an inquisitive brow as he tried to translate the writing.

"Where in the world was he sent, anyways?" asked Vexen, looking over at Xaldin as he nearly gave up trying to read the letter. "And can you decipher this? That man's handwriting is atrocious." He waited a moment, still looking at the paper curiously, before looking up. "Xaldin?" However, the Nobody was no longer there, gone as silently as the wind.

He huffed lightly and tried to straighten the paper out, hoping this would help him to read it better.

"…need," he muttered, "creatures are… Can't portal… Stuck…" Vexen snorted lightly as he saw the word "alcohol" scribbled on the corner. Figures; Xigbar definitely had a one-track mind.

"This is all we have?" Vexen asked as he looked over at Xemnas. "We don't even know where he is. How am I supposed to find him?"

The dark skinned Nobody glanced over, orange eyes glinting. "A sniper brought that here. Follow it."

--

"How much further _is_ he?"

The Academic had been complaining for nearly half the time he'd been traveling through the murky bog, dodging vines and low branches as he walked across the water. The surface of the swamp froze beneath his feet, melting in his wake, and the process went even faster as he quickened his pace to keep up with the sniper nobody, which hurried along from tree to tree. It never stopped, even when Vexen paused to catch his breath, or to look around as he heard a suspicious shift in the foliage.

Soon they came to a slight decline in water, resulting in mud. Vexen was unprepared for this transition, and one of his feet sunk into the muck. The sniper hung just by a large pipe opening in the hillside, dark water slowly spilling from its mouth. With a sickening _shluck_, the scientist pulled his foot from the mud and stepped gingerly along until he reached the pipe.

"You're kidding me," he muttered, looking into the dark pipe. "It's disgusting. And dark." He looked over at the lower ranked nobody. The sniper's body quivered peculiarly and slipped into the pipe.

"Dammit Xigbar," growled Vexen. "With all this trouble, you better be fucking alive." And he leaned into the mouth of the pipe, lifted a knee up into it, and pulled himself in.

--

He'd never been claustrophobic. In fact, sometimes he even liked being packed in.

This time, in that dark pit, the smell of stagnant water and sludge squishing under his fingers, his breath was quick and his eyes strained to work in the pitch black. He blindly crawled along, resisting the feeling he was getting to shiver, merely out of the memory of what was called "fear".

Vexen could feel the cold through his leather pants, and he could only imagine the disgusting whatevers his cloak was catching as it dragged through the water. His back ached from trying to keep low enough so that his shoulders and head wouldn't scratch against the top of the pipe. The occasional wrong placement of his hand or knee would cause a pop of the metal to push down and create an eerie sound like something growling at him, and it sent a violent shiver up his spine.

It seemed like hours in that pipe, hardly noticing the foul smell anymore, and trying not to think about whatever that squishy, crunchy-sounding thing was that he had crushed under his knee was, before there was even a slight glimmer of light ahead of him. It was a beacon of hope that this horrible mission would be over soon, and he hurried his crawl.

He fell out into a small room, splashing into about an inch of disgusting water, a few dead rats(or what was left of them) floating along the surface. The Academic sputtered, straightening up and moving to the wall quickly, pressing against the cold, slippery metal. How disgusting; he hated to think of all the different diseases he was liable to catch down there… So, the sooner he found Xigbar, the better.

The sniper was standing just on a wall, near a narrow passage way, and as Vexen moved towards it, the creature slithered into the passage, disappearing in the dark. He came up to it, looked around briefly, then lifted his foot up to the slightly higher elevated floor there and lifted himself in.

He had to walk sideways to get through the passage; but at least he wasn't in there as long as he had been the pipe.

However, the drop to the next room was unexpected, and he very practically fell into the room. Vexen stumbled forwards a little, feeling a sharp pain on the top of his foot as he banged it against a protruding piece of metal.

The sniper hovered near the shadows, curling in on itself slightly as Vexen leaned against the wall and regained his composure. The room was a dead end, and half shrouded in darkness.

…and he noticed a sudden, soft, gargling sound from the darkness where the sniper nobody was. Something shifted in the dark.

"Eck'un," something said. The Academic stared, green eyes slightly wide but no evident fear showing on his face. His mind raced.

"Eck'un… Cuh'ere…" it continued. Its speech was labored, as if something was stuffed into its mouth, or its tongue was swollen. "Ai's… 'ig'ar."

Vexen stared.

"X…Xigbar?" he murmured, shifting slightly. Then he frowned. "Dammit. You have no idea what I just went through to find you. What the fuck have you been doing? What the fuck happened? How did--" but he stopped as he saw the other begin to crawl from the shadows.

The Freeshooter's hair was loose, long salt and pepper hair hanging limp and greasy in his face. It was clearly damp, probably from the water in there. Something was wrong, Vexen was well aware of this; something was terribly wrong. He watched his superior crawling along the floor, elbows pointing in either direction and walking on the heels of his hands with his fingers splayed and bent upwards grotesquely. His knees dragged along the floor, causing a loud shuffling noise, the sound reverberating in the room.

The Chilly Academic stared in horror, and he felt as if he could scream, but it was stuck in the back of his throat, choking him.

"Eck'un, Eck'un," Xigbar crooned dully, and Vexen could hear a hint of taunting in the Freeshooter's low rasp. Slowly the gunner lifted his head, his hair falling away from his face.

The reason for his strange way of speaking was obvious now. His jaw was loose and hanging limply, unhinged from his skull but hanging by the skin there. His tongue lagged out like a dog, occasionally slithering over his teeth. His nose was severely broken, twisted in such a way it no longer resembled a nose at all. His eye patch was gone, revealing the sunken eye socket.

Finally, the scream slipped out, and Vexen leapt from the wall towards the exit. His leg gave out under him on a patch of slime, and he tumbled onto the floor, feet away from the passage to the rat pool.

What had once been Xigbar came towards him quickly, its head falling forwards limply, then jerking up violently in a beast like way, while Vexen tried to crawl closer to the exit. But his efforts were in vain as soon as the creature reached his legs and began to climb on top of him. By now, the Academic was shrieking for help, telling the Freeshooter to back off, go away, get off him, but there was no talking to that man, even as a monster.

Now the creature hovered just above the ice manipulator, saliva dripping onto his face as Xigbar leaned a little closer. A low, sort of chuckling sound echoed from him, and he sat down on Vexen's stomach, head lolling forwards. His arms moved, fingers falling straight as he lifted them, and became rigid in a claw-like fashion as he brought them closer to his face.

Vexen just shook his head, eyes wide, and he would have sworn he could feel his heart racing, that he could feel the fear.

Xigbar stuck one finger into his empty eye socket, moving it around a little inside, before sticking in another from the other hand. Two more fingers followed, then another finger from each hand, until there were six stuck inside his eye. Vexen felt vomit in the back of his throat, but he swallowed it down.

Slowly the Freeshooter began to pull his eye apart, one hand up and one hand down, making the hole larger and larger. Long pointed teeth lined the inside, and as he stretched further and further, he leaned closer and closer to Vexen, who was, at this point, crying and yelling and trying to get free.

The mouth pressed into Vexen's shoulder, biting down, and a chunk of flesh was ripped from his body, the cracking of bones being deafened by the Academics' screams. The teeth came back down, clamping down on the blonde's mouth, and with one definite shred, all noise save for the sound of a creature feasting was silenced.

--

Vexen never returned that day; or the next day, or the next. Xigbar was gone as well.

Xemnas stood out on his balcony, staring up at Kingdom Hearts, the yellow moon glimmering off his eyes.

A portal opened up behind him and Saix stepped out. He bowed his head in respect, both to his Superior and Kingdom Hearts, and he stayed that way until Xemnas turned to him.

"Ah. Seven," the silver-haired man greeted.

"You wanted to speak with me, sir?" replied the blunette.

Xemnas smiled slowly, a little bit of teeth showing as he did so. "I have a mission for you."


End file.
